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Stock Downgrades: Tears at Comedy Central Owner Viacom

From Lehman Brothers to the Jonas Brothers in five years is a
funny kind of progress, but
Nasdaq
(INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) yesterday
learned the hard way
just how much can happen in
6 Minutes
. Equities brushed off yet another trading outage at the exchange
and opted instead to spend 7 Minutes in Heaven, from where
PennyMac Financial
(
PFSI
) - up 3.55% - and
JC Penney
(
JCP
) - a 6.13% gainer - each descended in the ascendancy. The Nasdaq
glitch specifically started with the symbol PC, adding insult to
injury for the personal computer industry on a day
an unlovedMicrosoft
(
MSFT
) dropped a
Dow
(INDEXDJX:.DJI)-worst 2.15%. The auto industry, also left for dead
not long ago, came back to life in a big way with
General Motors
(
GM
) gaining 5.01%. Its headquarters are in Motown's marvelously
misnamed Renaissance Center but that unfortunate Detroit paramedic
who recently
suffered a heart attack while performing CPR
still seems a more apt metaphor for the town's ailing economy.

This morning, consensus calls for a falloff in factory orders for
July and August's Institute for Supply Management non-manufacturing
index, each out at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. On the quarterly earnings
front,
Conn's
(
CONN
),
Finisar
(FNSR),
Quiksilver
(ZQK),
Smith & Wesson
(SWHC), and
VeriFone
(PAY) are all expected to release results.

ABB Limited
(ABB) The European industrial equipment stock is slashed to
Equal-Weight from Overweight by Barclays.

First Majestic Silver
(AG): BMO Capital cuts the commodity company to Market Perform from
Outperform.

ProAssurance
(PRA): The property and casualty insurance company is cut to
Neutral from Buy at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey.

Viacom, Inc.
(VIAB): B. Riley reduces its rating on the owner of Comedy Central,
MTV, and Nickelodeon to Neutral from Buy. Valuation issues are
cited, with the stock up 62.28% in the past year and now trading
within 6.1% of the brokerage's $85 price objective.

Zillow Inc
(Z): The online real estate name is now Underweight from
Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.

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